Little Miss Perfect/Toddlers and Tiaras

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by ree-Xi

One thing I realized while watching one of the epsodes - the "best eyes", "prettiest hair" and similar awards are only given to those kids whose parents paid extra to be in these "optional" contests. So if only one of the kids had entered the category, they win. I caught it on an episode last year, when the dad ended up entering the kid into the optionals after the he and the mom had decided not to (getting one more chance for a crown).

I just googled beauty pageant fees "optionals" and found this application:
http://www.goldcoastpageants.com/entryform.html

Save now and enter all optionals for just $150 more!! PS. Talent entry fee is $40 extra.

Yeah that's dumb. It's like, you could've just bought a certificate and printed "prettiest hair" on it rather than paying $x to be the winner because you know your kid is the only one entering it.

Also--I don't get why they don't combine age divisions or something where there are like 2 kids in one of them.

For example, my cousin was into dance. At her dance comps, if there were only like 2 teams in a division, they combined it with a bigger division so the kids would have some legit competition. Parents didn't like to pay $ and drive all the all the way to a comp for their kids to compete against one team.

It's like pageants are opposite, parents don't mind paying a ton of money for their kid to compete against like two girls because it means their "special little snowflake" is guaranteed a prize.

[ColdInCanada11]

That's how all of my ballet competitions worked, and in Irish dance, a feis only counted in your standings if you had a certain number of competitors. Am I the only person that wouldn't want a trophy from a competition that had 2 competitors? Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I would consider it worthless.

Other than Toddlers and Tiaras, I'm completely unversed in the pageant world. Does anyone know if the bigger pageants that focus on teenagers and young adults also have all of the extra/optional categories? It makes sooo much more sense now why some people had won certain awards at pageants on the show- they were potentially the only one competing for it

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Also--I don't get why they don't combine age divisions or something where there are like 2 kids in one of them.

For example, my cousin was into dance. At her dance comps, if there were only like 2 teams in a division, they combined it with a bigger division so the kids would have some legit competition. Parents didn't like to pay $ and drive all the all the way to a comp for their kids to compete against one team.

It's like pageants are opposite, parents don't mind paying a ton of money for their kid to compete against like two girls because it means their "special little snowflake" is guaranteed a prize.

[KSUViolet06]

Typically, when you get to be a teen, you either:

*Quit pageants for some other activity like a sport.
*Keep doing these little rinky-dink pageants with like 2 competitors in them and call yourself a "beauty queen".
*Decide to quit these pageants and move on to the more serious pageants like Miss Teen USA.

I have followed Miss USA and Miss America for awhile and surprisingly enough, the girls who do the best at it (and end up Miss "City" or Miss State USA) are not typically girls who have been doing pageants since birth. Some of the girls didn't even start until they competed in a local Teen USA at the high school level.

That's why I find it so funny that so many of these moms want their girls to be Miss USA and Miss America. Those pageants are MUCH different from Little Miss Treasured Dollz and doing pageants since birth doesn't = growing up and winning a huge national pageant.

[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Typically, when you get to be a teen, you either:

*Quit pageants for some other activity like a sport.
*Keep doing these little rinky-dink pageants with like 2 competitors in them.
*Decide to move on to the more serious pageants like Miss Teen USA circuit.

I have followed Miss USA and Miss America for awhile and surprisingly enough, the girls who do the best at it (and end up Miss "City" or Miss State USA) are not typically girls who have been doing pageants since birth. Some of the girls didn't even start until they competed in a local Teen USA at the high school level.

That's why I find it so funny that so many of these moms want their girls to be Miss USA and Miss America. Those pageants are MUCH different from Little Miss Treasured Dollz and doing pageants since birth doesn't = growing up and winning a huge national pageant.

From what I could garner from a show (that just a few episodes) was about a SC Pageant coach, called "King of the Crown". One episode featured the infamous Miss Teen SC, Kaitlin Upton, trying to redeem herself and prove that she wasn't um, less than intelligent - you have to watch it; the scene where she is practicing for the interview is priceless.

Anyway, one of his students was competing in a "glitz" pageant, the type of pageant which most of the T&T episodes feature. He had never been to a glitz pageant. Once at the pageant, he started freaking out when he saw some of the "routines" the contestants (the random flailing) were doing during "outfit of choice" and/or talent part, or whatever they called it.

I wish I could find full episodes. They were well worth the time purely for the snark value.